1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of manufacturing electromechanical transducer elements, the electromechanical transducer elements, discharging heads, and inkjet recording devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet recording devices can print at high speed while generating very little noise. In addition, for such inkjet recording devices, there is a large degree of freedom of selecting ink, and less expensive plain paper may be utilized. Therefore, the inkjet recording devices have been widely adopted as image forming devices such as printers, facsimile machines, and copiers.
A discharge head for an inkjet recording device includes nozzles for discharging ink, liquid chambers that communicates with the corresponding nozzles, and pressure generating units that cause the ink in the corresponding liquid chambers to be discharged. It has been known that an electromechanical transducer element can be utilized as the pressure generating unit.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2011-9726) discloses a method of manufacturing electromechanical transducer elements. The method includes a first manufacturing process, a second manufacturing process, and a third manufacturing process. In the method, the first, second, and third manufacturing processes are repeated. In the first manufacturing process, a self-assembled film is formed on a predetermined area of an electrode, and the self-assembled film is hydrophobized. In the second manufacturing process, a sol-gel solution is applied to an area on the electrode where the self-assembled film has not been formed. In the third manufacturing process, a complex oxide is produced by drying, thermally decomposing, and crystallizing the electrode on which the sol-gel solution has been applied.
However, there is a problem such that, when the number of times of generating the complex oxide is increased, it becomes difficult to hydrophobize the electrode.